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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27373075">Speeding Cars</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DramaticSheep/pseuds/DramaticSheep'>DramaticSheep</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Madam Secretary</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Depression, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mental Health Issues</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 17:33:59</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,413</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27373075</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DramaticSheep/pseuds/DramaticSheep</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth makes a shocking confession to Alison about how she and Henry first met. A short 4 part multi-chap based on 2 lilacmermaid prompts.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Elizabeth McCord/Henry McCord</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>
    <strong>Speeding Cars</strong>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>
    <strong>Part One</strong>
  </span>
</p><p>
  <strong>A/N: This story meshes together two lilacmermaid33 prompts into one. I felt personally touched the first time I watched Season 4 Episode 13, </strong>
  <em>
    <strong>Reading the Signs</strong>
  </em>
  <strong> and I wanted to write about it, alas this story was born. I've rated this M due to the subject matter and mentions of attempted suicide and depression. This fic will probably jump around between present day and Henry/Elizabeth's time at UVA.</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Prompt: After the Lucinda incident, Elizabeth confides in Henry (and Alison?) for the first time that there were times in high school and university when she thought of suicide &amp; When Henry &amp; Elizabeth met for the first time, one of them was saving the other's life.</strong>
</p><p>Elizabeth and Henry McCord sat in the busy ER waiting room, they'd been here for just over an hour. Henry sat opposite his wife, who sat in silence, cradling their little girl in her arms. Alison McCord was just a few weeks into her first semester at Bayard University and frankly, had been loving life – until today.</p><p>Truthfully, she'd needed a break, although she'd lived her entire life with two siblings, learning to live independently and away at college had been a whole new kettle of fish, she and Lucinda had got along like a house on fire to start with, and she was so grateful to have been assigned such a cool roommate to board with. However as the weeks had passed and Alison had started to join societies and clubs, expanding her social circle outside of just her room mate – things had changed.</p><p>She'd noticed how Lucinda treated her differently these days, she was angry more often and often seemed jealous when Alison made plans with other friends that didn't include her. It was exhausting to be walking on eggshells 24/7 and eventually Alison decided to go home for a few days to clear her head.</p><p>Alison cuddled ever closer to her mother as she relived that scene over and over in her head, arriving back a school, standing outside the door to her room, psyching herself up for a whole five minutes to go in and face Lucinda, finally gathering the courage to open the door and finding her passed out on the bedroom floor, an empty bottle of pills and vodka beside her. She wasn't used to tragedy, she'd always been quite lucky in life so far, her maternal grandparents and paternal grandmother had passed away before she was born so she'd never had to grieve them, her only experience of suicide was when her grandfather Patrick had decided to end his life after running into money troubles, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to act in these circumstances.</p><p>She'd pulled her cell phone out almost instantly and dialled 911, she'd knelt down and placed her index and middle fingers on Lucinda's neck to check for a pulse, which fortunately there was, although it was weak. She sat beside her unconscious room mate on the floor of their bedroom while she waited for the paramedics to arrive, it was the most terrifying fifteen minutes she'd had to endure, all by herself.</p><p>"It's all my fault." Alison cried out as her mother held her, waves of guilt crashed across her conscience, her room mate had overdosed and the last thing she'd done was argue with her on the phone. How could she not have seen that her room mate was struggling so badly? Had Lucinda been trying to hide it or was she really that blind?</p><p>"Hey, hey now." Elizabeth reassured, kissing her daughters head.</p><p>"This is nobody's fault." Henry said quietly.</p><hr/><p>It was 6 am and Alison had woken suddenly from a bad dream, she got out of bed, deeply sighing to herself as she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. She headed downstairs and set up camp on the living room sofa, scrolling through her phone every few seconds although not paying attention to anything she was reading. She still felt in shock over what had happened yesterday, the guilt still washed over her – had she known that Lucinda was struggling that badly, she would have done anything to help her, there was no way she would have left her alone to come back home for a visit, but how was she supposed to have helped her if she didn't open up to her about it?</p><p>She jumped when she realised her parents walking into the living room, she'd been buried so deep in her own thoughts that she hadn't even heard them coming down the stairs.</p><p>"You're up early." Elizabeth said, kissing her daughters head.</p><p>"I couldn't sleep." Alison admitted, barely looking up from her phone.</p><p>"Everything okay?" Henry asked, sitting beside his daughter on the sofa.</p><p>"Bad dream." Alison said, she hated admitting to struggles around her family, compared to them, she had it easy.</p><p>Elizabeth took a seat beside her daughter in the comfy arm chair to her left, a look of grave concern plastered all over her face.</p><p>"Noodle, we need to talk." Elizabeth said.</p><p>"What?" Alison asked, curiously.</p><p>"It's ok to not be okay about this." Elizabeth said.</p><p>"I know." Alison replied.</p><p>"I just mean, well, we'd understand if you want to take some time out after this, it has to have been a big shock." Elizabeth added.</p><p>"Really, I'm okay, I can't take time out – I just got started, I can't miss out on my classes."</p><p>"A lot of people struggle in the first year of college." Henry said from the other side of the sofa.</p><p>"Yeah?" Alison asked.</p><p>"Absolutely, I had a roommate in my first year, he used to cry himself to sleep every night, it was a bit awkward and I asked to be transferred to another room. I bumped into him a few months later and he was doing well, it just takes some kids longer than others to adjust." Henry explained.</p><p>"I had a difficult time in my first year at college." Elizabeth said.</p><p>"You did?" Alison asked, she had never known this about her mother.</p><p>"Babe, are you sure?" Henry asked, looking concerned.</p><p>"Yeah, I think it's time." Elizabeth said. "Time for her to know the truth about how we first met."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Speeding Cars</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>A/N: Warning: Contains stuff such as: depression, suicidal thoughts and attempted suicide. If you find any of these things triggering, please do not read.</strong>
</p><p>
  <span>December 24th 1986 - University of Virginia</span>
</p><p>The semester had ended six days ago, campus had gone from a loud, excitement filled hot spot to a silent empty nest, and the silence was deafening. Elizabeth Adams sat alone on her twin bed in her dorm room, her room mate had gone home for the holidays, naturally. For six lonely days now, she'd had the place to herself and had gotten into a mundane routine of eat, sleep, study and repeat – she'd always been a bit of a loner, but lately it was starting to get to her.</p><p>Since her parents sudden deaths three years prior, Elizabeth had retreated into herself, she had become a shadow of the girl she used to be. She knew it was wrong, and on some level she knew she needed help, but she wasn't ready to admit it to herself just yet. In the space of a few hours she had gone from having a loving family to being an orphan, from having a home to having nothing. She was sure she should have felt more upset and angry about that than she currently was, but the truth was, she felt nothing, she'd felt nothing for many years now.</p><p>It had angered her a little when she discovered that her aunt and uncle were going away for the holidays and that her brother was also unavailable. They'd offered to let her go and stay at the house but she'd politely declined, what was the point? Why drive for hours when she could be alone just fine right here in her dorm room?</p><p>On the final day of the semester she'd walked to the local supermarket and stocked up on essentials, knowing that the stores would be closing for the holidays and she didn't want to end up with no food.</p><p>She sighed and threw her textbook to the side on her desk, none of this info was going in, it was no good. She had exams coming up in January and she was pretty sure she was going to fail if she didn't start retaining the damn information soon. College had been more difficult than she'd ever anticipated it could be, she had always been bright and good at school, but this level of study was more intense than anything she'd ever experienced before, she struggled to keep up and it was only her vast amounts of studying that was keeping her head above water and her grades up.</p><p>She picked up her dinner bowl and water glass from her desk and walked over to the little kitchenette to wash it, not paying attention she stumbled over a pair of her roommates slippers which had been left out, throwing her hands out to save herself from falling, she dropped the bowl and glass they shattered into pieces on the bedroom floor, the sound was deafening amongst the silence.</p><p>Elizabeth scowled as she observed the broken crockery and saw the sauce from her noodles starting to soak into the carpet.</p><p>"For fuck's sake." She muttered, bending down to start picking up the pieces, she picked up the slippers she'd tripped over and threw them onto her roommates bed. She knelt down beside the damage and started scooping up pieces of broken glass one by one.</p><p>"Ow!" She shouted as she picked one piece up a little too roughly, and it sank into the tender flesh of her palm. She stared in disbelief at the jagged piece of glass sticking out of her hand and laughed, so she <em>could</em> feel after all.</p><p>Cradling her injured hand she walked over to the sink and turned the faucet onto cold, she slowly pulled the shard of glass out of her palm and threw it into the bin, then began to rinse her hand, she watched as the blood was swirling away down the drain, flowing in circles with the water. The cut was significantly deep, possibly in need of stitches but she didn't care.</p><p>What was the point any more? Nobody cared about her, she was all alone, the fact that her remaining family had all made plans for the holidays without telling her was a testament to that. Even if she bled out right here, in her college dorm room, nobody would even notice. She shook her head trying to push these thoughts out her mind and opened the cupboard, searching for a bandage or a band-aid or anything to put on the cut, but there was nothing.</p><p>"Nothing. Typical." She muttered, she was about to close the cupboard when she noticed a half full bottle of vodka sitting on the top shelf, it was her roommates, she knew it but what the hell? She grabbed it with her uninjured hand and went to sit on her bed. She took off the bottle lid with her teeth and spat it out, bringing the bottle to her lips she took one big gulp.</p><p>The stuff tasted disgusting as she knew it would, she'd never been a big fan of vodka, in her opinion it tasted like paint thinner, but she forced herself to swallow the burning liquid, it tickled her throat on the way down. She took another few gulps and reeled in the familiar sensation of tipsiness, her cheeks felt warm and her head slowly began to spin.</p><p>Her mind recalled the last time she'd felt <em>this </em>alone. She was fifteen years old and had just lost both her parents in a serious car accident, her little brother had survived and physically he was okay, but mentally he was broken. Elizabeth had felt broken too. She'd spent the best part of two weeks crying alone in her bedroom, she wasn't ready to live in a world where she didn't have a family anymore, she couldn't make any sense of what had happened, it was too much to bear. She remembered so clearly how she'd walked into her parents now empty bedroom and took one of her fathers belts out of his chest of drawers and returned to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. She'd swung the belt over the light fixture in her ceiling and secured it tightly around her neck, standing on her desk chair she'd <em>almost</em> been ready to step off the chair when her bedroom door had flown open and her little brother had walked in.</p><p>"Lizzie, what the hell are you doing?" He'd asked, dumbfounded at the sight of his sister about to take her own life. He had helped her down from the light fixture and she fell to pieces, holding him in her arms.</p><p>"I can't do this without you." Will told her, he had started to cry too.</p><p>His words echoed in her mind as she came back to the present. She started to wonder how different things would have been if she'd remembered to lock her bedroom door, if she'd been able to go through with it and take her own life. She wondered what death was like, was there some great, peaceful afterlife as so many people liked to believe? Or was there nothing? Just blackness?</p><p>She looked at her watch, surprised to see that it was past midnight, officially Christmas.</p><p>"Merry Christmas, me." She told herself quietly, as she took another gulp of vodka. In a fit of blind ambition she got to her feet and walked out of her dorm room carrying her vodka bottle in her uninjured hand, she walked into the stairwell and began to climb. She lived on the second floor, but there were a total of seven floors in this particular student accommodation building. She climbed until she reached the highest floor and paused before the door that read 'Roof Access'. Taking another drink of alcohol, she turned the handle and pushed the door open, shivering as the howling ice cold wind engulfed her, she stepped out into the cold winter's night.</p><p>Like every other place on campus, it was silent and abandoned up here, no matter where she went, she wasn't going to get any human interaction. She sighed and looked out over the campus, it had started to snow rather heavily, but she was still able to make out the walkway between her accommodation and central campus. The Christmas lights which were wrapped around each lamp post sparkled beautifully in all different colours, it really was beautiful. A Christmas tree twinkled brightly in the distance in the central campus square.</p><p>She shivered as the snow began to settle on her shoulders and started to melt, soaking her t shirt; she wish she'd brought a jacket. Even with the affects of the alcohol she was still cold. She took another large gulp and stumbled forward, walking towards the ledge. She stood there looking down at the ground from seven floors up. It was a long way down and she was sure there was no way she would survive it if she fell.</p><p>She stood at the ledge for what felt like hours, looking down at the ground and taking gulps of vodka every now and then, drinking herself into a stupor.</p><p><em>It would be so easy</em> she thought to herself. All of this pain, all of this nothingness that had engulfed her for the past three years could all be gone in a mere few seconds, all she had to do was be brave enough to take the first step. One little step and it'd all be over. One little step and she would be reunited with her parents, she would be at peace, hell, maybe she'd even be happy. What did happy even feel like? She couldn't remember.</p><p>Amongst her blur of thoughts, she spun around as she heard someone walking up behind her.</p><p>"What the hell are you doing?" The voice shouted.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Speeding Cars</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>A/N: This chapter takes place before what happened in the last chapter (by about twenty minutes)</strong>
</p><p>
  <span>December 25th – University of Virginia Central Campus</span>
</p><p>Henry McCord was shivering. He knew it was way too late to be walking around campus but he didn't care. He thrust his hands deeply into his pockets and continued to walk; he needed time to clear his head; as he walked his breaths materialised in front of him. He'd arrived back on campus only twenty minutes ago, fresh from a huge argument with his father. He felt like he and his father never saw eye to eye on anything, and it was probably true. He sighed as he thought about his mom, who was probably beside herself with worry right now. Henry had left immediately after the argument and began driving back to campus, intent on getting away from that toxic environment.</p><p>It had taken him over five hours but he had finally arrived back at the UVA campus, parked up and began to walk. He had no destination in particular, he just wanted to walk. He'd ended up in central campus and stood in front of the giant Christmas tree that set in the center of the square. He checked his watch and saw that it was finally past midnight, it was Christmas day.</p><p>"Merry Christmas, me." He muttered. This had definitely been up there with his worst Christmas ever so far in his life. He looked around the abandoned square and revelled in the quietness. This place was normally packed with hyper students sitting down to eat lunch or walking between classes. Right now it was eerily calm, Henry thought he preferred it this way.</p><p>He let out another deep shiver as the first snowflakes began to fall, dusting the sleeves of his jacket, he made to wipe them off – but it was no use, the snow began to fall even heavier and soon he'd be soaked. He took one last look at the Christmas tree, admiring the lights and the ornaments until his eyes fixed upon the bright yellow star perched on the top.</p><p>He started to feel a little remorse for walking out on his family the way he had and decided that, after getting some sleep he would call his mother to let her know he was okay. For now he decided to head back to his dorm where thankfully, he would be alone because he knew his room mate had gone home for the holidays.</p><p>He tore his gaze away from the tree and turned, starting to walk back in the direction of his dorm. He looked up at the surrounding buildings and sky, taking it all in, it really was a beautiful night, and the snow would really have made it the perfect Christmas if he wasn't here all by himself. He continued to walk, picking up the pace a little to try and keep himself warm, he really needed to invest in a better jacket, or a pair of gloves at the very least.</p><p>He walked towards one of the dorm buildings closest to campus, he'd applied to board in this building but unfortunately hadn't managed to secure a place, it wasn't all that bad being further out from campus, he enjoyed the walk and it kept him fit and healthy, but he did sometimes wish for the longer lie ins he would have been able to take if he'd been given a room in this building. He looked up at the seven storey building and gasped as he saw a figure on the rooftop.</p><p>He strained his eyes to see them more clearly through the sheets of snow which were now falling to the ground. It was a girl, he could tell that much, she had a bottle in her hand.</p><p><em>Drinking, on a rooftop? Smart</em> Henry thought to himself. He made his way over to the dorm building and pulled open the reception door, making his way inside. He stamped his feet on the door mat to shake off any excess snow and headed in the direction of the stairwell. He was in pretty good health but even he admitted to being a little out of breath by the time he reached the seventh floor. He approached the door reading 'Roof Access' and pushed it open and stepped out onto the roof. It was colder up here and windier, he stared at the girl who was now dangerously closed to the ledge.</p><p>He thought she must be freezing, she was up here in pyjamas, no coat and covered in snow, her long blonde hair lay flat against her back, soaked by the melting snowflakes. Trying to be as quiet as possible he began to approach her, noticing the bottle in her hand was nearly empty. The snow crunched beneath his shoes as he took a step forward and thanks to the bitter silence surrounding them both, she heard him and instantly turned around.</p><p>"What the hell are you doing?" Henry exclaimed, exasperated.</p><p>The girls eyes flashed with shock, as though she'd never seen another human being before. She looked genuinely surprised that another person was on campus besides her. He was amazed when he realised he'd seen her before. Almost every day since the start of semester he'd seen this girl studying in the library, though he'd never actually introduced himself, he'd always thought that one day he'd like to get to know her. Henry made to approach her again and she threw her hands up in front of her.</p><p>"Don't come any closer." She cried, she was ever so slightly swaying from side, clearly intoxicated.</p><p>Henry raised both his hands and took a step back.</p><p>"Okay, okay. Not coming any closer." He said.</p><p>"What are you doing here?" Elizabeth asked.</p><p>"I could ask you the same thing." Henry commented</p><p>"You don't even know me." Elizabeth muttered.</p><p>"No, but I'd like to." Henry replied.</p><p>Elizabeth ignored him and shivered deeply, the world was beginning to spin, it felt like a ride, she kind of liked it.</p><p>"You're shivering." Henry said. "Won't you come back inside?" He asked.</p><p>"What's the point?" Elizabeth asked, there was such a melancholic tone in her voice and it made Henry's heart ache for the poor girl, she really must feel alone.</p><p>"There's always a reason to live." Henry offered.</p><p>Elizabeth laughed coldly.</p><p>"I have no more reasons to live." She admitted.</p><p>"I'm sure that's not true." Henry responded. "You got a family?"</p><p>"Not really." Elizabeth shook her head.</p><p>"Is that why you're here alone, over the holidays?" He asked. Elizabeth nodded in response.</p><p>"Well, If you hadn't already noticed, I'm here alone too." He reminded her.</p><p>She seemed a little out of it, Henry really wanted to approach her and pull her back from the ledge, he was worried one wrong move and she'd fall.</p><p>"Nobody would even care." Elizabeth sighed.</p><p>"If you jumped?" Henry asked. "I saw you eyeing up that ledge from down in the street, I raced up here as soon as I could."</p><p>"Well you shouldn't have." Elizabeth muttered, Henry shook his head fiercely.</p><p>"Can I ask your name?"</p><p>Elizabeth stared at him, unsure. She didn't want to open up to him, she never opened up to anybody anymore, she only ever ended up hurt; but there was something about him that was oddly calming.</p><p>"Elizabeth." She told him.</p><p>"Elizabeth? That's a pretty name. I'm Henry, nice to meet you." He introduced himself, risking another step forward.</p><p>"Hey." Elizabeth warned, her hands flying up instinctively again, Henry stopped in his tracks.</p><p>"Well okay, fine. If you're not going to let me come to you, do you want to come to me instead?" He suggested, Elizabeth paused for a moment and shook her head.</p><p>"Alright, well can we at least ditch the bottle?" Henry asked, motioning at the almost empty bottle in her right hand. Elizabeth didn't take her eyes off him as she unclenched her grip on the bottle, letting it fall to the ground, where it shattered.</p><p>"What do you want?" Elizabeth asked.</p><p>"Well, I'd like to take you back inside and back into the warm." Henry explained.</p><p>"Why are you being so nice to me?" She asked, it was strange and she wasn't used to it.</p><p>"Because I think your life is worth way more than becoming a dead body in the street." He replied.</p><p>"My life is worthless." Elizabeth whispered.</p><p>"I don't believe that for a second." Henry assured her. "Will you please let me come over there?" He asked.</p><p>For a while they stared into each others eyes, he could see the pain in hers, the way they swam with the ghosts of whatever had pushed her to this point, all he wanted was to make her feel better. After what seemed like years, Elizabeth slowly nodded and Henry walked over to her side at the ledge. He broke his gaze and took a momentary glance over the side of the ledge, staring down to the street below.</p><p>"That's pretty far." He commented.</p><p>"I was just about to jump." She said.</p><p>"Looks like I got here just in time then, thank God."</p><p>"You'll probably change your mind about that." Elizabeth sighed, she made to walk back in the direction of the stairwell, but staggered amongst the ice and snow. Henry lurched forward and grabbed her arm to break her fall.</p><p>"Here, I'll help you." He said, allowing his shoulders to take most of her weight. "What floor do you live on?" He asked.</p><p>"Second."</p><p>He opened the roof access door and led her back inside, then began the very long walk down five flights of stairs. He stopped as they entered the second floor.</p><p>"Which room?" He asked.</p><p>"Nineteen." Elizabeth replied, she was starting to feel a little nauseated.</p><p>He helped her back into her dorm room and sat her down on the bed, he walked over to her chest of drawers and pulled out a clean and dry pair of pyjamas and handed them to her.</p><p>"Here, get changed or you'll get hypothermia." He said, turning around and walking into the kitchenette, filling a glass with water.</p><p>When Elizabeth was changed she threw her wet pyjamas on the floor and sat back on the bed. Henry walked back over to her and helped her get into bed, he handed her the glass of water.</p><p>"Drink this, you'll need it."</p><p>"Thanks." Elizabeth said as she slowly sipped a the water.</p><p>"I don't feel very comfortable leaving you alone tonight. Do you mind if I take that bed over there?" He asked, pointing to her roommates empty bed.</p><p>"I guess." Elizabeth said quietly.</p><p>He threw his backpack to the floor and walked over to the bed. He shed his coat onto the floor next to the bed and stripped down to his t-shirt and boxer shorts, sighing he climbed into bed. What a strange Christmas this had been so far.</p><p>He glanced over at Elizabeth from his side of the room, she had already fallen asleep; her breathing shallow and drawn out, she was sleeping quite peacefully, all things considered. He reached over and turned off the bedside lamp and the room plunged into darkness, he closed his eyes and he let his exhaustion become him, drifting into sleep.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Speeding Cars</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>A/N: Thanks for the reviews. This is the final chapter, so a pretty short multi-chap. I'll probably write a different story or two in the future based on this episode of MSec, because it was a great one. Thanks for sticking with me!</strong>
</p><p>Alison's mouth dropped open in shock as she took in her mother's words, one by one. She can't believe she'd never known this. Her mother had often told them about her old college days but she'd definitely neglected to bring this up. She remembered once her mother had told them about the Christmas when she'd stayed at school during the holidays, and about how quiet it had been.</p><p>Her heart ached for the pain her mother must have been going through to have contemplated throwing herself off of the roof of a building. Was this the way Lucinda had felt? Isolated and alone? She must have felt there was no other way out of the hole she'd dug herself into.</p><p>"How did you get past it?" Alison asked.</p><p>"Oh, months and months of therapy." Elizabeth said.</p><p>"And it helped?"</p><p>"Very much so. You really have to just be in tune with your body and know that it's okay to not feel okay, as long as you make sure you do something about it before things go too far." Elizabeth explained.</p><p>"I can't believe you felt that way, I wonder if that's how Lucinda felt?"</p><p>"Life is hard, Noodle. I'm not going to lie to you about that; but you have to remember you have a network of people around you who love you unconditionally. Lucinda does too, she was just in too deep to realise it." Henry said.</p><p>Alison nodded.</p><p>"You're right. I guess it's okay that this whole thing has freaked me out way more than I'd like to admit. Is it alright if I stay here a while?" Alison asked.</p><p>"Of course baby, this is your home. You don't have to ask." Elizabeth exclaimed, stroking her baby girl's arm.</p><p>"Thanks you guys." Alison said, slowly getting up from the sofa. "I'm going to see if I can catch some more sleep." She headed off and climbed the stairs, leaving Henry and Elizabeth alone in the living room.</p><p>Elizabeth got up from her seat and moved onto the sofa next to Henry, he took her hand in his and stared deeply into her eyes.</p><p>"Are you okay after that?" He asked.</p><p>"I'm fine, I suppose there was no way we could keep it from them forever." Elizabeth replied.</p><p>"Sometimes I wonder – I think about what would have happened if I hadn't had that interstellar argument with my dad that day." Henry admitted.</p><p>"It is kind of crazy to think about." Elizabeth said, reminiscing.</p><p>"I think it was meant to be, me finding you that night."</p><p>Elizabeth smiled at her husband.</p><p>"Yeah?" She asked.</p><p>"I know that the world would be a much worse place without you in it." He took her deeply in his arms and squeezed her tight. The thoughts had plagued him little by little across the years of their marriage. He looked at what he had today, his beautiful wife, three amazing children, a beautiful town house and a farm. Without Elizabeth he would have had none of it. He truly believed it was God's doing, placing him in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to stop her from taking her own life.</p><p>"It does make for an interesting story, doesn't it?" Elizabeth said quietly.</p><p>"Hmm?" Henry asked, lost in his thoughts.</p><p>"The first time we ever meet, and you save my life."</p><p>"What can I say? Not all superheroes wear capes." He joked, Elizabeth gently laughed, her head lying on his chest.</p><p>"Can I ask you something?" Henry posed the question cautiously.</p><p>"Sure." Elizabeth said.</p><p>"You'd tell me if you ever felt like that again, right?" Elizabeth sat up and pulled herself away from him.</p><p>"You know I would." Elizabeth said. "I was in a very dark place back then, hell, anybody would be." She defended herself.</p><p>"I'm not accusing you of anything." Henry replied, holding his hands up in surrender.</p><p>"No I've never felt quite like that ever since." Elizabeth confirmed.</p><p>"That's good, what changed?" He asked.</p><p>"I found you." She replied, smiling sweetly, placing a soft kiss on his lips. Henry closed his eyes as she kissed him, taking all of her in.</p><p>"Do you think Ali is going to be okay?" Henry asked as she sat back and lay her head on his chest once more.</p><p>"I think she'd tell us if she wasn't" Elizabeth said.</p><p>"You're right, at least she's going to stay home a while." Henry commented, Elizabeth chucked.</p><p>"Yup, our almost empty nest is surprisingly once again at full capacity." She joked.</p><p>"And that's just the way you like it." Henry commented.</p><p>"That's<em> just</em> the way I like it." Elizabeth mused, nodding.</p>
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